How Shall We Say, "Thank You"?
Has your faith in Jesus Christ changed your life? If you have had a major illness or a life threatening accident... If you are recovering from a debilitating addiction or have served time in prison... If you have lived through a divorce or suffered at the hands of another... and you are here to tell about it, you have experienced Jesus' power to redeem. If you have endured the consequences of poor life choices and changed the way you live, your life bears witness to the miracle of redemption.
Now I understand... Not everyone who endures such things - illness, accidents, addictions - lives to tell about them. Too many people die too soon. But that is what makes the rest of your lives miracles! I have faith that the Living God can claim and redeem their lives, even after death, because I witness the miracle of Christ's redemption of your lives each and every day.
That we are alive today, given all of the forces in this world that can so easily take this precious gift of life from us. Given the things many, if not all, of us have endured and lived to tell about, it is no less than a miracle that we are here this day. Like the ten lepers Jesus healed on his way to Jerusalem, you are living, breathing proof, each and every day: God is real; God is good; and, God continues to work wonders in our lives.
The question before us this day is: How shall we say "Thank You", for this miracle we have received? How shall we say "Thank You", not only for this precious gift of life, but for the even more precious miracles of redemption, healing and wholeness, we may have received along the way? How shall we say "Thank You"? "Remember God!"
In the traditional Thanksgiving reading from Deuteronomy, God's people, as they are preparing for life in the Promised Land, a land where they will want for nothing, are charged to "Remember God!"
"When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the LORD your God..."
Having wandered 40 years in the wilderness, where they learned their very existence depended upon the daily bread God graciously provided, God's people are charged not to forget the God who provided for them when they had nothing. In a Land, whose bounty is greater than they could have dreamed...
"a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper."
...the Promised Land of Milk and Honey, God's people are to remember God and keep God's commandments.
People of faith, we know a prosperity of which few people can dream, even the abundance of the Promised Land pales in comparison. We live insulated lives, so far removed from God's providence our culture has all but forgotten God. I pray, in this season for giving thanks, we will not only count our blessings, but we will remember the gracious God who gave us this precious gift of life; keep God's commandments; and, say, "Thank You!" with our lives.
See you in church!
Pastor Myers
